Red sheets and the
Cool sides of my crimson pillow case.
Warm air
Breezes into my brand new place.
My fan is rotating
The birds are conversating
The sun will rise soon
And then it will be noon
And then the day will be done
But I'll still feel the sun
From my heart beat sheets
And my room, complete.

Looking at this wall again
potato snack bag and necklaces
it's good to be back in this place
where I have no worries
and can stay calm in my own space.

Incense smoke lingers heavily in the air,
attempting to mask the smell of stale beer
and spilled **** water.
Arrest warrants hang with straight A report cards
and dated paintings I used to call art.

You and I, woven in between soft and stained sheets
on my hand-me-down mattress.
Our clothes, thrown into heaps on the floor.
I stare at faded, falling posters while you trace my scars
left by a pair of hands before yours.

Buddha watches over dusty photo albums and
half read books I will never finish as
Mary hangs off your neck
watching over an unfinished me.

We lay underneath burned out bulbs of ceiling
string lights listening to scratched CDs skip,
sharing a sweet cigarette.
I know you and I are not forever.
like these walls I have                                                          out­grown.

The hopelessness in a foreseeable car crash--
an emotion lasting a split second--
is unlike the crippling anxiety of a passenger
who fears the leather-bound mobile mercy seat.

Yet the mirage renders the victim just as helpless
in the impalpable facade of doom.

To never leave this room.

By Arcassin Burnham

I sense your loving embrace,
can't nobody tell you different love
your a rocket ship in my eyes
you make me feel alive

Beat around the bush but the bush could
Get cut down,
I wouldn't feel this way in shambles if i
Had you now,
I could put away my childish things to
Only later return to a kiss,
I wish that I could taste it,  I could reach
It if it wasn't made of pure bliss,
am I what your looking for,

I sense your loving embrace,
can't nobody tell you different love
your an rocket ship in my eyes
you make me feel alive
and when I'm not talking to the hive,
my heart and lasting memories can be
soon enough repaired

I won't just die
cause the memory of you is still here.

I pretend you’re still here,

By keeping the sock drawer half-open

With one tongue slipping out



When I leave your favorite wool shirt laid out on bed,

Casually, almost

As a remainder of your whoosh washing movement around our bedroom

That always leaves me drenched in your rain



I pretend you’re still here

When I place your comfy Jesus sandals erratically,

Naturally,

By the side of the bed, although I stumble upon them

Occasionally

Although I seldom ask you to put them away

As an emblem of the chaos your storm creates



I silently call your name when I walk in

Babe, I’m home under my bitten tongue

The silence calls me back coyly

Too afraid to hurt my feelings one more time



I pretend you’re still here

But cannot carry it forever



The heat has already wilted away the roses you got me last

****** the air from the baby breathes that resemble my hair

And the dance from my curls

Dry washed your last worn button-down from your odor

On what do I lean now?

My books have shut down their ears to me,

They no longer allow me to be their bedfellow

They no longer welcome my sunken head in their laps

They shoo me away, with kind words nonetheless



The heat has given me his last notice

I will have to remove your coffee cup from the bed stand

I have to slip your book back into the shelf

We both know you won’t be reading it anymore…

he sings about a family photograph
in a language i understand no better
than a mathematical equation
and i grasp the strength and weakness in his voice
and the vibrations they send through my wooden table and all its contents
my eyelids flutter open and shut like a dying moth,
trying to be in sync with the music but unable to
i stretch and fold my legs as i hit the replay button,
crack some knuckles and glance around in double vision
as i'm being slowly oxidized to death
i have pictures of a smiling childhood idol
pasted on the wardrobes,
a  series of little pale yellow lights
taped apologetically to the textured, pastel blue wall.
i have writings on my wall in colours i cant find within myself,
and i suddenly pray this poem won't disappear
with the glitches of technology.
i pray to nobody, no god, no spirit.
being the atheist i am, i feel strange closing my eyes,
“please let it be okay” echoing in my head every time.
but these are not my thoughts.
these are not your thoughts.
they simply are.
he continues belting out notes
and i breathe without rhythm.
my lungs are tone deaf.
i get goosebumps on my hairless limbs for a second.
applause resounds, it's a live recording of the song.
short pause, next.
piano picks up pace
and the mellow voice of a different man
of the same tongue fills the room.
a little more lively.
i realize it's not the words you need
to understand what he means.

Ive been waiting for this rain for days now...
It came down,
Like electricity overhead, the city
Felt magneticly wet to the stem.

Im sitting at the kitchen table with some coffee & bread
Just wrote an email to an old friend that read:
Dear: You, Words. Love: Me.....thats it.
If not tonight, hell read it in the morning
Hell smile, send similar words before he forgets.

Im a random thought for others,
A praise, a blame, a kiss, a handshake
Whichever the case...
Ive always been here for the whole thing.
From the first steps, to playgrounds and graduations
to speakers that play sounds, then exclaimations
From a clenched wheel on a rainy road
To a stenciled feel from a nameless terminal
To dressy shoes, held-back hair in front of strangers,
Yet I had objectives, so I spoke like Ive known them for years
I left a good impression I think, for I never once let them blink.

I closed the door behind me, followed that feel, for I was starving
I walked past living rooms flooded with remote light, toys and noise
I went to the kitchen table, spread out my words into poetry and prose
My records on this day that the rains came....
Just another day....
Where I was there for the whole thing....